1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information display method, and more particularly, is suitably applied to an information display method for guiding and displaying various kinds of programs when a viewer selects a desired program among many television programs which are transmitted, for instance, through a broadcasting satellite.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in a satellite broadcasting system in which television programs are transmitted to viewers through a broadcasting satellite, television signals have been digitized and an enormous number of programs have been simultaneously transmitted. In such a system, the number of programs which are selected by the viewers has been extremely increased.
Further, in a system for providing a great variety of information such as programs, movies, music, articles of magazines, commercial information, and so on to the terminal of a computer from a host side through a telephone line or a private line, a user on the terminal side has needed to select necessary information among a huge number of information, and therefore, he has needed to request the host side to supply the information.
When the viewer or the user tries to select a desired television program or information or the like by using a computer, he must retrieve or search for the desired program or the information among an extremely large number of programs or information. In this case, the user needs to do an operation that he searches for or retrieves the desired information while information units which are classified hierarchically based on a certain concept are displayed on the screen of a monitor. Thus, there have been encountered troublesome problems that the user or viewer is brought into a state in which he cannot recognize the hierarchical layer of information for which he is searching at present, and the user misunderstands the concept for classification, hence, he hardly retrieves or searches for the desired information with easiness.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide an information display method by which a viewer or a user can readily retrieve or search for desired information.
In order to achieve the above described object, an information display method according to the present invention comprises a first display step of displaying information icons for guiding respective information on a part of a display screen as the base units of an information guide; a second display step of displaying the summaries of information corresponding to the information icons in the forms of titles at display positions corresponding to the information icons; and a third display step of displaying the explanation of the contents of the information which corresponds to the information icons at positions respectively corresponding to the information icons and the displays of the titles.
As described, according to the present invention, the screen on which a plurality of information icons are displayed, the screen on which the summary of information corresponding to a specific information icon is displayed in the forms of title and the screen on which the explanation of contents of the information corresponding to the specific information icon is displayed can be respectively switched under the operation of the user. Therefore, a manageability for the user can be desirably improved by switching continuous and integrated display forms.
The nature, principle and utility of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals or characters.